Campaigns

Huffington Post on Palin and Native Advisor Resignation

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the Huff (H/T TW):

JUNEAU, Alaska — Gov. Sarah Palin’s rural adviser resigned Monday amid criticism of the governor’s record on hiring Alaska Natives.

Rhonda McBride, who is not an Alaska Native, made the announcement in an e-mail to several Native leaders, saying there need to be more Native voices in Palin’s administration.

“I definitely think it would help to have an Alaska Native in this position,” McBride told The Associated Press.

Many Alaska Natives have said they felt neglected when Palin, now the Republican vice presidential nominee, made appointments to her administration, including the rural adviser post.

State Sen. Al Kookesh, a Democrat, said Palin left the position unfilled her first year in office and ignored Native leaders’ suggestions on the selection process.

“We were really disappointed when an Alaska Native wasn’t appointed,” said Kookesh, a Tlingit Indian who held the job in a previous administration.

Natives bristled early in Palin’s administration when she named a white woman to a game board seat held by a Native for more than 25 years. An Athabascan Indian eventually was named to the post after protests.

Relations worsened after Palin didn’t remove a game board chairman who once suggested that Alaska Natives missed a meeting because they were drinking beer, seen as insensitive since the Alaska Native community has high rates of alcohol abuse.

Alaska Natives make up about 20 percent of the population.

My Question for Both VP Candidates….

Matthew L.M. Fletcher2 Comments

Recall Mark Trahant’s question to President George W. Bush years ago?

I’d love to see Sarah Palin’s answer….

NYTs: McCain and Indian Gaming Ties

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Three of the top ten gaming donors to McCain are tribal (here).

The main article from the NYTs:

Senator John McCain was on a roll. In a room reserved for high-stakes gamblers at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut, he tossed $100 chips around a hot craps table. When the marathon session ended around 2:30 a.m., the Arizona senator and his entourage emerged with thousands of dollars in winnings.

A lifelong gambler, Mr. McCain takes risks, both on and off the craps table. He was throwing dice that night not long after his failed 2000 presidential bid, in which he was skewered by the Republican Party’s evangelical base, opponents of gambling. Mr. McCain was betting at a casino he oversaw as a member of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, and he was doing so with the lobbyist who represents that casino, according to three associates of Mr. McCain.

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Heather Kendall-Miller’s Reponse to Sarah Palin Supporters

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From ICT:

Unlike Mr. [Ben Nighthorse] Campbell, who remarks that he is Northern Cheyenne, a former senator, and a leader in the McCain campaign, I am an Athabascan Indian, I have lived in Alaska all my life, and I actually know firsthand what Gov. Sarah Palin has done.

Contrary to the former senator’s remarks, Alaska subsistence hunting and fishing issues are not complicated. As the former senator concedes, however, they are deeply “political.” My point exactly: consistently, Sarah Palin has politicized subsistence and sought to advantage urban hunters and fishers over the rural people who actually live a subsistence way of life. It is a stunning hostility, given that subsistence fishing, as one example, consumes a mere 2 percent of all consumptive uses of fish in our state.

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Register to Vote in Michigan

bnewland

Here is the link for a Michigan Voter Registration Application. It is a PDF file and can be filled out right on the computer. Voter applicants will then have to print out the form and sign it.  Please read the instructions carefully (there are only a few).

www.michigan.gov/documents/MIVoterRegistration_97046_7.pdf

Applicants can then either mail the form to their county clerk (who will forward the application to the appropriate township or city clerk) or turn it in, in person, to their township or city clerk.  Addresses for each of Michigan’s 83 county clerks appear on the form’s instructions page.

Here are a couple of things to remember:

1.) Mailed applications must be postmarked by the registration deadline: Monday, October 6th.

2.) First time voters cannot vote absentee unless they register in person by hand-delivering their application to the Township or City Clerk.

3.) The address on the application must match the address on the applicant’s Michigan driver’s license. If an applicant does not have a valid Michigan driver’s license, or Michigan ID, they can send in a copy of another acceptable form of ID with a current address. These include: Tribal ID cards; copy of paycheck stub with address; copy of utility bill; a copy of any other government-issued ID.

4.) If the applicant does not receive a voter ID card within 3 weeks, they should call their township/city clerk IMMEDIATELY. They may want to keep a copy of their application in case any dispute arises.

McCain and Palin are “Old School” When it Comes to American Indian Policy

Nick Reo9 Comments

I recently had two conversations with fellow Natives about the 2008 presidential election that I thought were noteworthy. First, while on a trip to Washington, D.C. I connected with Yup’ik and Haida friends and we discussed Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Their perspective was quite clear. They feel that 1) Palin has worked against the interests of Alaska Natives throughout her career and 2) her representation of the “First Dude” Todd Palin as an Alaska Native during the GOP National Convention was troubling. On this later point, they shared that Todd Palin’s connections to Native peoples is paper thin and that, tellingly, Governor Palin had never discussed her husband’s Native ancestry publicly prior to the GOP National Convention. Previously, she had merely referenced that her “children’s grandmother is part Yup’ik” which is quite different than saying “my children are Yup’ik” or “my husband is “Yup’ik”.

The second conversation was with a friend who shared that she has noticed a lot of members of the Indian Tribe on the reservation where she lives are supporting the McCain-Palin campaign because McCain is a veteran and Palin’s husband is “Native”. I find this rationale for American Indian voter support troubling. To be sure, Native people are extremely supportive of their veterans and veterans of all nations. However, to think that a politician is going to support tribes and Indian issues simply because they are a decorated veteran is naïve. Furthermore, because McCain is a long-time Arizona policy maker and AZ is a state with many tribal nations inside and straddling its borders, voters do not have to look hard to track down McCain’s record on American Indian policy. McCain and his chosen running mate both represent states heavily populated by Native people, yet neither has proven themselves supporters of Indian Country during their time in office.

I ask two things of anyone who may read this blog. First, please vote in the 2008 presidential election and encourage/help others to do the same. Second, before making your decisions about the upcoming election, look into the voting records and public comments of the candidates. There are plenty of places to find policy statements and voting records, including:
http://www.votesmart.org/election_president.php

or
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/2008-presidential-candidates/

If you are Indian or supportive of Indian people, you can also look to see how various candidates are referencing and interacting with tribes during their campaigns to get a sense for how supportive they will be to Indians if elected. I’ve been tracking how McCain’s work impacts Indians since the mid 1990’s and in the last month have studied up on Palin’s record with Alaska Natives. I saw a bumper sticker recently that referred to the McCain-Palin ticket as a “bridge to nowhere”. One thing is for certain in my mind; McCain and Palin will not help to build a “bridge to sovereignty” or a “bridge to prosperity” in Indian Country. However, they could likely build a time portal that takes American Indian policy back to the 19th Century.

Palin’s Pipeline and Canadian First Nations

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

From Newsweek (H/t BB):

The principal achievement of Sarah Palin‘s term as Alaska’s governor, a natural-gas pipeline project backed by $500 million in state tax money, might never be built unless Canadian authorities can strike a deal with some of the country’s angry Indian tribes. Approximately half of the proposed pipeline would run through Canada; native tribes who live along its route complain they haven’t been consulted about it and are threatening to sue unless they are compensated. Representatives of the canadian tribes, known as First Nations, say Palin and other pipeline proponents are treating them with disrespect. The tribes’ lawyers warn that the courts are on their side and say the Indians have the power to delay the pipeline for years—or even kill it entirely by filing endless lawsuits.

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Maletski v. Macomb County Republican Party Complaint

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the complaint resulting from the Macomb County Republican Party’s promise/threat to challenge any voter whose home has been foreclosed upon. Thanks to Cami for this.

Complaint

From the complaint:

This complaint seeks declaratory and injunctive relief to challenge the “lose your home, lose your vote” vote-suppression program adopted by the Macomb County Republican Party, in concert with the Michigan Republican Party and the Republican National Committee, as well as unnamed Defendants who will implement the scheme at polling places in Macomb County and throughout the State.

Palin on Tribes

Kirsten Matoy Carlson18 Comments

From Lloyd Miller & Heather Kendall Miller

Sarah Palin’s Record on Alaska Native and Tribal Issues

1. Palin has attacked Alaska Native Subsistence Fishing

Perhaps no issue is of greater importance to Alaska Native peoples as the right to hunt and fish according to ancient customary and traditional practices, and to carry on the subsistence way of life for future generations.

Governor Sarah Palin has consistently opposed those rights.

Once in office, Governor Palin decided to continue litigation that seeks to overturn every subsistence fishing determination the federal government has ever made in Alaska. (State of Alaska v. Norton, 3:05-cv-0158-HRH (D. Ak).) In pressing this case, Palin decided against using the Attorney General (which usually handles State litigation) and instead continued contracting with Senator Ted Stevens’ brother-in-law’s law firm (Birch, Horton, Bittner & Cherot).

The goal of Palin’s law suit is to invalidate all the subsistence fishing regulations the federal government has issued to date to protect Native fishing, and to force the courts instead to take over the role of setting subsistence regulations. Palin’s law suit seeks to diminish subsistence fishing rights in order to expand sport and commercial fishing.

In May 2007, the federal court rejected the State’s main challenge, holding that Congress in 1980 had expressly granted the U.S. Interior and Agriculture Departments the authority to regulate and protect Native and rural subsistence fishing activities in Alaska. (Decision entered May 15, 2007 (Dkt. No. 110).)

Notwithstanding this ruling, Palin continues to argue in the litigation that the federal subsistence protections are too broad, and should be narrowed to exclude vast areas from subsistence fishing, in favor of sport and commercial fishing. Palin opposes subsistence protections in marine waters, on many of the lands that Natives selected under their 1971 land claims settlement with the state and federal governments, and in many of the rivers where Alaska Natives customarily fish. (Alaska Complaint at 15-18.) Palin also opposes subsistence fishing protections on Alaska Native federal allotments that were deeded to individuals purposely to foster Native subsistence activities. All these issues are now pending before the federal district court.

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GOP Platform

Kirsten Matoy Carlson

GOP platform includes Native-specific language and goals

From Indian Country Today
Posted: September 05, 2008
by: Rob Capriccioso

WASHINGTON – Delegates and leaders of the Republican National Convention have approved a national party platform for the next four years that includes several Indian-focused provisions.

Under a section in the 67-page document titled, ”Supporting Native American Communities,” the platform states that the ”federal government has a special responsibility to the people in Indian country and a unique trust relationship with them, which has been insufficiently honored.

”The social and economic problems that plague Indian country have grown worse over the last several decades, and we must reverse that trend. Ineffective government programs deprive Indians of the services they need, and longterm failures threaten to undermine tribal sovereignty itself.”

The platform, which amounts to a GOP roadmap of principles and goals for the next four years, says that Republicans believe that economic self-sufficiency is the ultimate answer to the challenges in Indian country and that tribal communities, not Washington bureaucracies, are better situated to craft local solutions.

”Federal – and state – regulations that thwart job creation must be reconsidered so that tribal governments acting on Native Americans’ behalf are not disadvantaged.”

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